[5877] in APO Printshop
Re: Non-profit rules and the current discussion (long)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Leonard H Tower Jr.)
Wed Jan 6 22:21:50 2010
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 22:20:50 -0500 (EST)
From: "Leonard H Tower Jr." <tower@alum.mit.edu>
To: apo-printshop@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1001052114460.8321@psi-phi.mit.edu>
what ellen wrote in her long message (appended at end) helps further
understanding of this issue.
but there are several point she didn't make, and some that could use
more clarification
i would like to see the press shop, and the chapter go back to the
policies we had up to 5 to 15 years ago (in place since @ least the
early '60s, on what use of chapter (i.e. MIT) equipment and resources
is allowed, and what isn't.
policies that respected the law and MIT policies and procedures
perhaps once this is understood and agreed upon,
the actives could choose to make it a standing policy
it will be some days (hopefully not weeks) until i can really go into
this more
* i'm too busy right now
* my home continues to be renovated, and part of the chaos, is i don't
know where my files on non-profit law and tax policy are.
i don't have time right now to recreate them.
i.e. do the research from scratch
* my home computer is broken. the backup machine is slow and small,
and crashed when i tried to download the pdf cat pointed @ (though
i'm pretty sure which IRS publication it is)
for what i need to do on-line from home, the backup machine is good
enough, except for helping AX with this
three more things right now, re:
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 22:44:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Ellen Kranzer <ccrazy@MIT.EDU>
So, in terms of the current discussion, I think Len is correct in
saying the shop couldn't do the print job for Mims. However, as
several people have pointed out, Len violated shop
protocol. Anytime a pressop sees a problem with accepting a job for
any reason -- violating shop rules, asking for something we can't
handle, scheduling issues; that pressop should send a message to
apo-printshop so that we're all aware of the situation and nobody
takes the job. The shop manager should let the customer know that
we can't take the job. This prevents situation where either
multiple people respond to the customer or nobody responds to the
customer; neither of which is good for customer relations or the
chapter's image.
* "customer" is probably not the best choice of word.
AX isn't a business.
"client" or "servee" is more in line with APO being an
non-profit charitable service provider
anyone have a better suggestion?
what does AX call the groups we do service for these days?
* shop procedure on how press ops are matched with jobs varies over time.
my understanding of what cat wanted, was that she would be the person
who notified a client which press op would do a job
it appears that other people have a different understanding of what
the current procedure is
my apologies, if my understanding is wrong
* as i said when we last discussed this:
** what cat wanted/wants has more often had problems, than the more
cooperative procedure that has been use most often over the 40
years AX has had the shop. (i've been advising the shop for all
that time, though i step back alot whenever there are enough
younger journeymen)
** even so, as i said when we last discussed this, i'm willing to do
whatever is agreed to
** the procedure has to be one that gets the client a speedy
answer or at least an acknowlegement quickly.
hopefully less than a day
** i disagree that it's bad for a client to be briefly in touch with
several press ops, and in practice this rarely happened
** the time to reconsider this, is either when the actives want a
change, or we have a new press shop manager
yiLFS -len http://www.art.net/~tower/
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 22:44:27 -0500 (EST)
From: Ellen Kranzer <ccrazy@MIT.EDU>
To: apo-printshop@mit.edu
Cc: Cat Thu Nguyen Huu <catthu@mit.edu>,
Leonard H Tower Jr. <tower@alum.mit.edu>, Jennifer Tu <jtu@mit.edu>
Subject: Non-profit rules and the current discussion (long)
Given the discussion that's going here, here's a general overview
of some of the things that apply:
501(c)3 status. 501(c)3 status is a status under federal tax law
that makes an organization 1)exempt from federal income taxes on
income related to it's exempt purposes and 2) allows people who
contribute money to the organization for the organizations exempt
purposes to deduct those contributions from their own income
taxes. There are also other types of organizations that are exempt
from federal income taxes, but whose donors don't also get a
benefit.
"An organization may qualify for exemption from federal income tax if it is
organized and operated exclusively for one or more of the following purposes.
Religious.
Charitable.
Scientific.
Testing for public safety.
Literary.
Educational.
Fostering national or international amateur sports competition (but
only if none of its activities involve providing athletic
facilities or equipment; however, see Amateur Athletic
Organizations, later in this chapter). The prevention of cruelty
to children or animals.
To qualify, the organization must be a corporation, community
chest, fund, or foundation. A trust is a fund or foundation and
will qualify. However, an individual or a partnership will not
qualify." (IRS Publication 557, Tax Exempt Status for your
Organization)
501(c)3 organizations can also have income from sources unrelated
to their exempt purposes, so long as it is below a certain
percentage of it's overall income; however, it that income is
subject to the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT).
"For most organizations, an activity is an unrelated business (and
subject to unrelated business income tax) if it meets three
requirements:
1. It is a trade or business,
2. It is regularly carried on, and
3. It is not substantially related to furthering the exempt
purpose of the organization.
There are, however, a number of modifications, exclusions, and
exceptions to the general definition of unrelated business income."
(http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=96104,00.html)
Additionally, there are rules about 501(c)3 organizations not
competing directly with for-profit businesses and gaining an
advantage in the marketplace because of their tax exempt status.
Having federal 501(c)3 status does not automatically exempt an
organization from taxes at the state and local level. That is up to
the individual state and some times the individual local government
unit. In Massachusetts, 501(c)3 organizations can apply for a sales
tax exemption, which applies to purchases for the organization's
use. Massachusetts also exempts land used by non-profits for their
non-profit purpose (or that is idle) from property taxes. There are
other state and local taxes out there which Mass. non-profits
still need to pay.
Note, all of this so far is about taxes that organizations pay on
their own income. Sales taxes on items sold by 501(c)3
organizations is a whole 'nother ball game. If a Massachsetts
501(c)3 sells something that MA law says a sales tax should be
collected from the customer on, the 501(c)3 needs to collect that
sales tax and remit it to the state.
Alpha Chi falls under two different 501(c)3 umbrellas as a subgroup
of those organizations -- M.I.T. and Alpha Phi Omega. Because MIT
current requires it, all of the chapters finances current go
through MIT's accounts. All of it's economic activity takes place
under MIT's tax ID numbers. Any IRS or state reporting gets
aggregated into MIT's overall filings.
Moving on from the purely fact based stuff to things that are a mix
of fact and my intepretation and at the danger of opening a whole
can of worms:
In terms of the pressshop and categorizing customers, there are
three categories: Internal MIT customers, APO people doing personal
jobs, and everyone else. Given that our economic activity is under
MIT's corporate umbrella, there probably isn't a distinction
between jobs for an individual, printing for other non-profits or
printing for a business. Under APOs corporate umbrella, there is
probably justification for seperating out work for other
non-profits from the other two cases.
Interal MIT customers -- basically MIT departments and other
student organizations. That's just moving money from one part of
MIT to another, regardless of the mechanics and doesn't create any
problems in terms of taxes or the rules on competing with
commercial businesses.
APO people doing personal jobs for themselves -- in general, the
various laws are okay with employees/members using a non-profit
group's equipment for incidental personal use so long as the person
isn't receiving renumeration, especially if they are reimbursing
the organization for their use of the equipment (press fees). To be
completely proper, APO people doing personal jobs should be buying
their own paper and paying sales tax on it when they purchase it
rather than buying from the chapter's paper stocks purchased with
the tax exemption.
All those other jobs -- we're probably not handling these properly
within the law, because properly we should be collecting sales tax
or sales tax exemption information and then reporting that to
someplace at MIT which rolls it in with all the sales from the
other parts of MIT that are collecting sales tax and then remitting
it all to the state. This can of worms is part of what leads to the
policy on not doing outside jobs. If we were working as a proper
business, the business's purchase of the paper would still be tax
exempt (in general, only the final consumer pays sales tax), but
the purchase would be done with different paperwork/ID numbers than
the 501(c)3 exemption we're using; so again, some issues. In other
words, it avoids a whole lot of potential issues to just say "no
outside jobs". Historically, we haven't done that, we've done
outside jobs for people affiliated with APO that are personal or
non-profit related, rather than commerical in nature.
So, in terms of the current discussion, I think Len is correct in
saying the shop couldn't do the print job for Mims. However, as
several people have pointed out, Len violated shop
protocol. Anytime a pressop sees a problem with accepting a job for
any reason -- violating shop rules, asking for something we can't
handle, scheduling issues; that pressop should send a message to
apo-printshop so that we're all aware of the situation and nobody
takes the job. The shop manager should let the customer know that
we can't take the job. This prevents situation where either
multiple people respond to the customer or nobody responds to the
customer; neither of which is good for customer relations or the
chapter's image.
Y.i.S.
ELlen
